Femtocell handover, i.e., handover or handoff to and from femtocells, is important in cellular networks. Such handovers are expected to be seamless and advantageous from a service-provider as well as subscriber perspective. The handover involving macrocells and femtocells is complicated and many factors are considered before such handovers can take place. There usually are a large number of femtocells in the coverage area of a macrocell and due consideration should be made prior to handing off to a femtocell.
In current communication systems, the decision of whether to hand off to a different femtocell is made by the network. This can be problematic in the case when a subscriber has a preference as to which femtocell to handoff to. In current systems, since the handover decision is made by the network, user preference is completely disregarded.
In addition, the mobile unit currently sends information about a large number of femtocells to the network in order for the network to make a decision. In current handover situations, a mobile unit must communicate with a large number of femtocells, gather information about these femtocells, and report this information to the network. This is the pre-handover procedure which consists of pre-authentication and security confirmation.
As can be seen, current methods of handover do not take user preferences into account and force mobile units to gather and transmit large amounts of information about the femtocells to which they can communicate with.
Therefore, a need exists for a better way of performing handovers to femtocells that alleviates these problems and provides for a better experience for the user and less congestion on the network.